Many United Airlines MileagePlus members have recently qualified for premier status due to increased ticket prices and reduced status requirements.
It is becoming harder to get a flight upgrade. If an upgrade isn't available, we recommend booking with points to avoid disappointment.
There are several ways for United Airlines passengers to get a better seat, even though they are less common.
We will show you everything you need to know about upgrade eligibility, priority and more.
If you want to get a better seat on your next United flight, you need to find seats that are designated for upgrade.
You can review this guide based on United's fare classes. Three fare classes are used to indicate upgrade inventory.
If you have this information, go to United's "expert mode." It seems that expert mode is back in our tests after several months.
When you search for revenue flights on United, you will see how many seats are available in each bucket.
You will have the best chance of finding upgrade inventory before you leave.
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Look at the following flight from San Francisco International Airport to the Faaa International Airport. The seats on this flight are wide open.
Nine or more Polaris seats are available as upgrades for Global Services travelers using PlusPoints or miles, while nine or more PlusPoint seats are available for non-Global Service travelers. Nine or more seats are available for mileage and PlusPoint upgrade.
Regular award inventory is different to upgrade inventory. Since upgrade space tends to correlate with award space, you can use miles to fly in Polaris business class.
There are at least nine seats for a business class saver mileage redemption.
There is less availability from Newark Liberty International Airport to the MCO.
There are two seats left in first class on this plane.
One seat can be confirmed using PlusPoints or miles. Shortly before departure, United released first-class seats to the "PZ" fare class, which was confirmed by one of the staffers.
This seat can be confirmed by full-fare economy premier members. Instant upgrades will be discussed in the next section.
General members don't have saver first-class seats. There are no first-class saver seats for mid- and upper-tier premier members.
Additional award availability can be unlocked with United.
The upgrade inventory is only one part of the puzzle. If you don't know the order in which your upgrade will be processed, you'll be out of luck. There are two different categories for United's upgrade.
The two highest-priced economy-fare classes, Y and B, are eligible for an instant upgrade if you are a United premier member. This also applies to M fares for members of the premier 1k group.
When the necessary fare buckets are available, customers who apply miles or certificates to move up to the next cabin will be able to confirm the upgrade instantly.
Economy-class tickets are often more expensive than first-class tickets.
Your upgrade won't clear at the time of booking so you'll end up on the wait list. It might not be confirmed until a few days before the flight or at the gate just before departure. There are a lot of upgrades that don't work out.
The requests will be cleared in the order of priority.
Some of these factors won't affect every flight. If multiple passengers with the same elite status tier request an upgrade, United will move down the list and use fares as a tie-breaker.
If that doesn't work, the system will continue to use the passenger's credit card type, spending threshold, and time of request.
United got rid of it's old system in September. The upgrade certificate currency is called PlusPoints.
You can earn PlusPoints by following these steps.
A total of 320 PlusPoints will be earned by United Mileage Plus members who meet the requirements for Platinum status.
It is possible to use PlusPoints for another traveler's reservations. If you want to upgrade your friend with PlusPoints, you'll need to log in to your Mileage Plus account.
There are two different categories within PlusPoints.
PlusPoints can be used to upgrade in a number of ways. You can use PlusPoints to put yourself on the wait list like we did.
You will be informed of the policy during the request process. If you want to request seats with your PlusPoints, you have to choose them. If the upgrade clears, you'll only pay with your PlusPoints. Different preferences can be set for each leg.
You will need a certain amount of PlusPoints to upgrade to a Polaris cabin on international flights.
There are few and far between skip-the-wait-list upgrades for premier 1k members.
You can upgrade to Polaris business class on long-haul international flights if you find one. Unless immediate upgrade space is available, you will be wait listed for domestic legs.
The prices for moving from economy to premium economy or 40 PlusPoints to get into business are more expensive than you might think.
They can move from the economy to Polaris with as much as 100 PlusPoints.
The cost has increased by 250%. You should know that the points are non-refundable. If you have to cancel the flight because of the upgrade, you can't get your PlusPoints back. If you change your flights, they can't be used to confirm upgrade on other flights.
It's possible to upgrade immediately using PlusPoints on long haul flights. Premium Plus and Polaris will be able to use this feature if you're in the W or higher fare class. This feature isn't available in 30 days.
There are new ways to get perks.
If you redeem miles for an upgrade, you will get an upgrade. The number of miles required for an upgrade can be checked on the chart.
Kyle has booked a trip with United from San Francisco International Airport to Daniel K. Inouye International Airport.
The cheapest ticket in the class was booked by him. The cost of an upgrade is 27,500 miles and $125 one-way. The $125 upgrade co-pay is no longer required since he's a premier 1k member.
There is no PZ fare class availability on his flight so he would be left on the wait list.
Alternatively, he could have paid $567 for this one-way upgrade and redeemed 20 PlusPoints to be added to the upgrade waitlist.
Since 27,500 United miles are worth $332.75, it might be worth using miles instead of paying cash, but it's unlikely you'll get an upgrade if you don't pay cash.
Clicking on the "Manage your reservation" and "Upgrading cabin" buttons at the top of the screen will allow you to request the upgrade.
If seats are available, most paid tickets on United-operated flights can be upgraded to Mileage Plus.
Kyle used the hack to reserve a Premium Plus seat on the flight for free.
There is still work to be done, a review of United Premium Plus.
United gives complimentary upgrade to members with every tier of premier elite status Even for Silver elite members like myself, one companion traveling on the same reservation is included.
All eligible flights, which are paid tickets on United- and United Express-operated flights, will automatically request CPUs for you.
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), John Wayne Airport (SNA) and San Francisco International Airport (SFO) are the only airports in California where complimentary upgrade are available.
Suppose you are traveling on a United Airlines flight from Newark Liberty International Airport to Honolulu or somewhere else in the world. You would have to redeem miles or use PlusPoints.
The same applies to the carrier's flights from Newark to Los Angeles or San Francisco.
If there is upgrade inventory available, select elite members can be upgraded instantly when booked into the highest fare classes. If you aren't upgraded instantly or booked into a lower fare class, complimentary upgrades will start to clear based on your elite status at the following windows.
If you have a United co branded credit card, you can use award tickets to circumvent the rule.
United Airlines' elite status is worth something.
You can upgrade your flights to a more comfortable seat. Benefits for elite members are what most of these options are for.
You should be able to upgrade your trip with cash or miles even if you don't fly a lot.
The carrier is notorious for not opening up inventory in advance.
The additional reporting was done by Kyle.
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